"Real video folks" have a separate computer for email, web browsing, word processing and so on. Or, close your email program and don't use it while editing. Multi-tasking is cool and all, but sometimes, you just gotta focus.

You can get a perfectly capable email/web/word computer for about $300 these days--also good way to keep nasty viruses and other schmeg off your edit box. But again, that's only if you're trying to make a living doing this stuff :)

This I will most certainly agree with. The auto-save process taking precedence over playback is a little silly, and sometimes maddening. I appreciate the software trying to C.M.A., but this should wait until I stop playback.

The last version of PPro 1 (I guess it was 1.5.1) didn't stop playback when losing focus, so it's obviously possible to multi task without adobe quitting. You could even auto-save or manual save while playback continued.

So yeah, that capability will probably be back one of these days.

I only do editing on the one machine, but I wouldn't let an e-mail or phone call interrupt me most of the time anyway. Your best route is to close all that distracting junk while you're working regardless of your setup.

But with computer prices being as low as they are, why not just grab a KVM switch (with audio) and buy a bare-bones-box for all your office tasks?

Actually, there's a pretty good reason why Premiere stops playing back video when it loses focus:

in order to play nice with other applications running on your system, Premiere releases resources so that when you alt-tab into Photoshop, After Effects, Donkey Kong, or whatever software pleases you, you recoup memory & have access to files that might otherwise be locked because Premiere would still be holding onto them during playback.

I think the stop on focus lost is about the dumbest thing the developers placed into Premiere. I think it's nice for many of the fans to suggest alternatives such as cramming your office with other machines.

For me, every time I get a spare $300.00 for a new machine, Im inclined to apply it to some upgrade on my main machine. I have a number of computers in my shop. However, I dont feel comfortable trying to load up a lesser machine to do something my main computer can do so much more efficient.

With my next spare $300.00 Ill upgrade my core2 to a quad. There is always something I can add to my main computer.

At present, unfortunately I have to live with this serious flaw of Premiere stopping until enough people point out how problematic it is and the developers provide the functionality. Im sure even the ones who speak against it will appreciate it when the developers come aboard to this necessity.

Like the personal speaking about the lower prices in computers (computer components), many people can upgrade their computers in such that they rival what used to be considered a supercomputer (comparatively), so hopefully most developers wont continue to think that their application should be reserved to be required to be an exclusively run (or installed) application.

Glad to see I have some support from people who understand the real potential of computers in such to make reference to this much needed ability of the Premiere developers to support it.

I'm glad for any input on this flaw. Hopefully it will not carry over to the next version. It's unfortunately that many thinks the wisdom of the developers don't need to be questions, and report suggest almost ridiculous suggestions such as Premiere is designed to work alone on a lone computer. There's no need to take it out of focus.

Of course, you're right. It constantly stops when you're actually trying to see various views while it's focus. The flaw causes a lot of productivity lost.

Playback stop on loss-of-focus should be a user-settable option in Preferences.

The arguments in this thread so far have not convinced me otherwise:

Adobe Premiere Pro needs to release resources to other applications;

Video editing professionals should have a second computer for doing their email;

Video editing professionals should focus on their work and not be distracted by other applications.

There are cases where it would be nice if there were a Preferences option to change the behavior so that Adobe Premiere Pro will continue playback despite losing focus.

In these cases, the only option currently available to the video editing professional using Adobe Premiere Pro is to render down the clip and open it in another application which doesn't stop when losing focus. (If someone knows of a different option, please post here.)

Here are a few cases:

#1 Following a written transcription of the video in a text editor application and scoring approximate timepoints in the text document for translators or voice-over while Adobe Premiere plays back the edited video with time readout.

#2 Transcribing sections of the video while listening to and watching video playback in Adobe Premiere with slowed playback while typing into an editor application. Or editing those transcriptions. Or fixing incorrect timing in transcriptions.

#3 Creating an artistic impression or review of a video clip in another application such as Adobe Illustrator while listening to and watching the clip in Adobe Premiere.

I've asked for this new feature directly to Adobe through the following link, and I encourage others needing playback to continue despite loss-of-focus to do the same:

> In all of those cases, playback in a separate media player seems the logical solution here.

Yes, best I can tell, the only workaround currently available to Adobe Premiere Pro users is not to use Adobe Premiere Pro for this functionality.

The disadvantages to the work-around compared with having the functionality built into Adobe Premiere Pro are:

Render time and resource usage, especially if the activity being done in the other application (text editor was my example) results in edits in Adobe Premiere Pro, requiring a new render and media player reload for each back and forth;

Additional complication to the workflow -- now we're talking three applications, and not just two; and

Acquisition and support of another video playback solution -- one that allows jogging and precise control plus detailed timing readout with seconds and frame numbers, i.e., you can't just use the built-in media player on most systems to get the control and the precise readout.

It would be nice to have the option of "continued playback on loss-of-focus" available in Adobe Premiere Pro -- as a user-settable option, even if it is not the default behavior.

There have been many, who have filed a Feature Request for the function to continue Playback, when working in another program. It will not hurt to have another.

The only time that I miss that capability, is when also working in Audition, but I use a variation of Jim's suggestion, and just Export, using the Video Viewer in Audition for my reference. I used to have to do the same, when working in Sonicfire Pro Scoring Edition, but now that is a plug-in for PrPro (and AE), so it is easier now, and no intermediate "reference files."

Forget workarounds and self limitations based on workflows that never need what others may want.

I can see exactly what ~Kevin wants and why he needs it.

It would be great if PPRO had an internal Word Pad and the word file could be treated as an asset in the Project Bin.

If it could have a "hyperlink" type connection to the timeline via timecode...that would be awesome. (That would be easy for xml programming I am thinking and well within the scope of Adobe programmers)

Just in case anybody is keeping score, I want to add my vote that it's super annoying to have all the CS apps automatically switch to being the foreground app after opening or saving. I just hate it when I launch Au or AE, then go to answer some mail, and be typing to be interrupted by an Adobe app seizing the foreground, and interrupting my train of thought, and losing some of the work I did.

For the record, I am a full-time professional editor, and have been for over thirty years. I routinely do email, web-browsing, FTP and all my video and audio work on the same computer. Since I communicate with clients, and obtain and send assets over the internet, multitasking is a must, not a luxury.

The suggestion that "real pros" don't do this is piffle, poppycock, balderdash . Many of the other "real pros" who I know work the same way.

Maybe this is a Mac thing. I would endorse the separate computer scenario for people on Windows, due to viruses. Not having your Windows NLE connected to the web at all is probably not bad advice, but it's not very practical either. Most apps and plugs now can self update, and sense when an update is available. Download is the only option for some apps and plugs.

And let's not forget that web connectivity is a must for several CS features, such as Resource Central, Adobe Story, etc.